Well, we’ve now made it through the heart cath. After making multiple accommodations (for communicating progress and for her siblings), we attempted to sleep (11 pm when you have a 4:40 wake up just does not work!).
Driving in the dark was generally uneventful (other than the unusual amount of traffic for before 6 am). We arrived, got checked in, and went up for the prep. We were both able to talk to doctors and nurses AND answer questions for the intake. Despite the fact we were a bit late for check in, they were able to take her down on time. We had to finish some of the intake questions and find the waiting area. We let our ‘chain’ know she’d started, and grabbed some breakfast (we certainly didn’t miss hospital food!)
We tried to hurry (but not too much) so we could get back to the waiting area to receive progress reports. We get back to the waiting area, put our bags and coats down, turn around, and there’s the doctor! ‘All done’. Certainly was a shock to us! We’ve been so used to longer procedures having one completed so quickly was a not unwelcome change.
As far as caths go, the news was good. Not sure what unit of measure they use for measuring pressures, but they like them to be between 5 and 10. She’s at a 7. We think the doctor wasn’t quite trusting what he was seeing, because he told us all the different places he checked: arms, legs, lungs, (I think the head was the only place he didn’t check). Since this doctor was not her regular cardiologist, the two need to communicate about the results.
The ‘problem’ with the results are, we don’t have any better idea what is causing the PLE. The only thing we’ve ‘eliminated’ is high pressures from her Fontan circuit. We’re still waiting to hear what her team of doctors think is the next step.
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